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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

IRS Seizes Chabad Yeshiva, Synagogue

The Internal Revenue Service has seized the building at 22 Newton Ave. that houses Yeshiva Achei Tmimim synagogue and Yeshiva Academy, a Hebrew day school. The notice says the seizure is for “nonpayment of internal revenue taxes.”

According to the IRS and the Worcester County Registry of Deeds, Yeshiva owes $435,235.31 in federal taxes, dating back to 2004. The vast majority of those taxes owed represent payroll taxes.

The IRS has been pursuing Yeshiva for a decade, fruitless in its attempts to get the religious organization to turn over payroll taxes on the 30 or so employees who work at the Hebrew school.

A public auction had been scheduled for this month, but has been rescheduled to Jan. 4, according to the federal agency's auction website, irsauction.gov. The bidding will start at $472,000, and only sealed bids will be accepted.

Despite the IRS action, things appear as normal at Yeshiva. The school and synagogue continue to operate, and the IRS, so far, has not moved to force the religious organization out of its longtime home. But if and when a sale goes through next month, that scenario is a possibility.

Yeshiva has been led for decades by Rabbi Hershel Fogelman, a well-known city figure with the ability to speak to anyone, at any time, about all things Jewish.

Every major Jewish holiday the Telegram & Gazette's newsroom gets a call from Rabbi Fogelman, who seeks to discuss the meaning behind that particular religious event and remind us of the need for news coverage.

In the past, he would show up unannounced and insist on an audience with a reporter, and he usually found one. Rabbi Fogelman called the newsroom several weeks ago to discuss Hanukkah.

Since then, though, the health of the 90-year-old spiritual leader of Yeshiva Achei Tmimim has taken a turn for the worse.

Rabbi Fogelman is recovering at the Jewish Healthcare Center. I found him resting peacefully when I visited him last week. Rather than wake him, I left a note and my phone number.

I called his son, Rabbi Mendel Fogelman, at the Newton Avenue synagogue and school last week to discuss the IRS action.

The news that Yeshiva could lose its home has been a long time coming.

The religious organization has struggled for years to pay its bills, and while the IRS is the largest creditor, it is by no means the only one.

According to an IRS document called “notice of encumbrances” that the agency filed to notify potential bidders of liens and other complications connected to the 22 Newton Ave. property, the city of Worcester is owed $8,523.78 in property taxes. I could find no record of those taxes with the city, which classifies Yeshiva as a tax-exempt religious organization.

Yeshiva owes the city $12,399 in water and sewer charges for Newton Avenue and 24 Creswell St., the rabbi's residence. A company called Acme Pre-Pak Corp. is owed $10,461. As recently as 2010, Yeshiva owed more than $31,400 to National Grid, and owes $25,000 on a 2001 mortgage with Commerce Bank & Trust on 22 Newton Ave.

The Bais Chana High School at 15 Midland St., still operating and run by Yeshiva, is owned by Robert Kirsch. The property is not tax-exempt, according to city tax records.

Last year, Yeshiva lost another property when Commerce Bank & Trust foreclosed on the former school dormitory building at 9 Midland St.

The property was purchased by Steve Gaval, a longtime member of Yeshiva Achei Tmimim, for $61,000.

I spoke to Mr. Gaval's wife, Michelle Gaval, at her Worcester home last week.

She said the couple is renovating the property, which was in terrible shape when they bought it.

“We bought it for ourselves,” she said, when I asked if, perhaps, the couple bought the property to allow Yeshiva to continue to use it. She said they intend to move into the home as soon as renovations are completed next year.

“We wanted someone in the community to keep it, rather than let someone else take it,” she said. “We just felt like, someone Jewish should own it.”

Perhaps someone from Yeshiva's congregation — or someone within the larger Jewish community in Worcester — will step up and buy the school and synagogue's property when it goes on the auction block next month.